1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a conduit for paint comprising a conduit wall, an interior, and a cleaning device.
2. Description of the Related Art
The conduit for paint serves for transporting a paint, for example, in the form of a varnish or enamel paint, that is to be applied to a surface, from a source to an application location, for example, a dispensing device. The dispensing device, for example, can be a spray gun. The source can be a paint changer via which different paints or varnishes can be fed to the paint conduit. Of course, other configurations for the use of such a paint conduit are conceivable.
When different paints are to be transported sequentially through the paint conduit, it is necessary to clean the conduit for each individual paint. For this purpose, first the paint present within the interior of the paint conduit must be removed. In principle, this is possible in that a solvent is guided through the interior and the paint contained in the interior is flushed out in this way. However, this causes partially a significant loss of paint which usually is to be avoided. Instead, so-called pigs or scrapers are used, i.e., bodies that are moved through the paint conduit and wipe or scrape clean the inner wall surface of the conduit wall. In this way, a large amount of the paint contained in the interior of the paint conduit can be returned into the reservoir or into an annular conduit. The residues of paint that still remain in the interior can then be removed by a solvent.
Even though the use of such a pig or scraper is widely accepted in practice, its use is relatively cumbersome. Either the pig (scraper) must be inserted into the interior of the paint conduit or the pig or scraper must be positioned in a parking position within the paint conduit as long as it is not needed.